Solidarity
by Kimsa Ki-Lurria
Summary: Ishida x Tatsuki. "I'm not Orihime, Ishida." His gaze never wavered. "I know." She watched them, and he watched her, waiting for the moment when her solid heart would break. He would be there to catch her.


_Solidarity_

Summary: [Ishida x Tatsuki] "I'm not Orihime, Ishida." His gave never wavered. "I know." She watched them, and he watched her, waiting for the moment when her solid heart would break. He would be there to catch her.

Warning: this story contains dysfunctional IchiHime (and some mild language). Sorry IchiHime fans. I hate the pairing even more than I hate Aizen. :O

Disclaimer: Do I hold no ownership over Bleach? Pfft. Is Uryu hot? Duh. Solid facts, yeah?

* * *

Uryu caught her watching her heart's children purely by accident.

She sat on a bench at the crest of a sharp hill overlooking a public park, her thin arms folded across her chest and her dark eyebrows drawn down sharply over her big eyes. One of her feet kicked in a mindless rhythm as she directed a solemn, concentrated stare on two people threading their familiar path through the quiet paths.

Uryu stood there for a moment, confused, his curious gaze rolling from Tatsuki to the people down below. What was she doing there?

He waited until the couple moved out of earshot before coming up behind her. When she stiffened and clenched her hands into defensive fists, he knew he'd been discovered and abandoned his pitiful attempt at secrecy.

"Arisawa-san?"

Tatsuki was on her feet with all the speed of a snake. Her brown eyes went wide at the sight of him. "Ishida! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied, gaze wandering to the two figures down below. Ichigo and Orihime. Holding hands. The image seared into his brain, painful, blinding, and he knew he would never forget the sight. He looked away. "I was just taking a walk. Uhm…what _are_ you doing here?"

Tatsuki huffed and plopped herself back down onto the bench. "Idiot-watching," she said, and glared at Ichigo.

He smirked. "May I join you?"

"Uh." Tatsuki looked up at him, one arm slung over the back of the bench, the other resting in her lap. She tilted her spiky-haired head a little, studying him, and narrowed her eyes. "What are you, a stalker?"

"You're the one watching them from all the way back here."

"Touché. And I'm not stalking them." She removed her arm as he sat down next to her. "I'm just making sure she's happy with him."

"Is she?"

Tatsuki rolled her head and gave Uryu that same glare, as if she wasn't sure she should even be speaking to him about Ichigo and Orihime. He remained still under her scrutiny. Finally, she sighed and shook her head, and in her chocolate-colored eyes he saw uncertainty and lost loyalty.

"I don't know."

* * *

Orihime finally got her wish after she was rescued from Hueco Mundo. She confessed her love to Ichigo on the battlefield, right after she'd finished healing Uryu, and…well, as they said, the rest was history.

But Tatsuki refused to let history die. She kept it alive every time she visited the park to watch Ichigo and Orihime pass by, sometimes frowning, sometimes smiling, but always keeping her eyes on the couple. After the second time Uryu showed up, when he surprised her by actually turning up again, she even stopped looking away to greet him.

To tell the truth, Tatsuki scared him. Just a little bit. But it was enough to make him hesitate.

Filling his lungs with a deep breath, Uryu adopted an indifferent stare when he spotted Tatsuki sitting by herself, her gaze glued, as always, on Ichigo and Orihime as they shared their lunch.

_Don't be a coward_, he chastised himself, and walked forward to join her.

Tatsuki greeted him with a surprised stare and a vague, amused smile. But she didn't protest or chase him away.

The breath Uryu had been holding gushed out in a silent rush.

* * *

"I don't see what she sees in him," Tatsuki said darkly one day while they were sitting in the park. "She's become so…quiet. Fragile. Ichigo's all wrong for her."

Uryu didn't say anything. He leaned back against the bench and closed his eyes, relishing the feel of the afternoon breeze sliding against his face. Tatsuki nudged him with her elbow. "Hey! Are you listening to me?"

He opened his eyes. "Yes."

Tatsuki frowned, opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, and closed it again. "What happened to her?" she asked. "No one tells me anything."

Uryu directed his gaze back to the orange-haired girl wrapping her arms around her boyfriend's waist. She leaned forward to kiss him, and Uryu closed his eyes again.

"She changed," he said with a jaded sigh, and Tatsuki didn't ask any more questions.

* * *

Uryu knew people talked about them. It wasn't strange that he stopped hanging around Ichigo and the others—everyone was used to his solitary nature and expected that he would go back to being a loner. What surprised them was the fact that Tatsuki joined him in his solitude.

"Why is she hanging around him?"

"Since when do they even get along? Now they're eating lunch together?"

"Is she…you know, _with_ him?"

Stupid, meaningless questions and rumors surrounded them, but Uryu couldn't help feeling—selfishly, naively, hopefully—that he and Tatsuki lived in their own circle of detachment, kept safe and together, away from the curious glares aimed at them.

"You listen to what they say?" Tatsuki asked one day, leaning her head back on her arms and letting her eyes slide closed. Uryu's gaze followed the smooth line of her throat and he swallowed, looking away as his cheeks burned with color.

"Why should I care about what they say? They're idiots."

"Well, duh," said Tatsuki with a dry smirk. She peeked a single eye open and ran her gaze along his figure in a way that only worsened the blush spreading across his face. He fiddled with the bridge of his glasses, just as he did every time he was feeling especially out of his element.

"Wh-what?"

"Nothing." Tatsuki chuckled and closed her eye again, folding her hands neatly over her stomach. "Too bad. You're really not that bad-looking, for a nerd."

He jumped and felt his face nearly burst into flame. She laughed, punched him painfully, and never realized she had struck a thread of truth.

* * *

Their meetings, their treasured solidarity in protecting the heart of a girl they both loved, began to become the highlight of Uryu's days. They walked to and from the park together, sat and talked together, and together they watched Orihime draw closer to Ichigo and further away from them.

Sometime in between, he didn't know when, Uryu began to forget about the reason he'd started coming to the park every day. He noted Orihime's presence and kept an eye out in case Ichigo did something stupid, but most of his attention was on the petite, fierce girl at his side. The Quincy learned to tell when she was upset, happy or bored, and he learned how to distract her when he could tell all she wanted to do was run down the hill and tear Orihime away from Ichigo.

"Something's going to happen sooner or later," she told him earnestly, eyebrows wrinkled with worry. "If it hasn't happened already. You can bet she won't tell anyone what's wrong."

And she was right.

It happened after school one cloudy day, when the rain hovered over their unprotected heads like a threat and slid into people's bones to infect them with a foul mood. Uryu had just snapped open his umbrella, knowing that he wouldn't make it to the park before it started pouring, and stepped outside to find Tatsuki facing Orihime with curled fists.

The orange-haired girl had her back to him, but he could easily tell that she was crying. Her head was bowed, her hands pressed hard against her mouth in a vain effort to hold back tiny broken sobs.

"I'm gonna kill him," Tatsuki snarled. There was dark fire in her brown eyes.

"No!" Orihime lifted her head and gripped Tatsuki's hands. "Please, Tatsuki-chan, don't!"

"Orihime, he hurt you." Uryu had never seen her so angry.

"But he didn't mean to!" Orihime protested. "It's not his fault Kuchiki-san is so pretty and nice—and I'm probably just overreacting. I'm sure he was just comforting her about something."

"Dammit, Orihime!" Tatsuki snapped. "Stop protecting him and listen to me! I'm trying to help you."

Her voice softened. "I just don't want to see you get hurt anymore."

"I'm fine, Tatsuki-chan," Orihime said quietly. She drew her hands away from her friend's and turned aside. "Really. Excuse me. I have to find Ichigo."

Tatsuki stared after her friend as Orihime walked away. In that moment, she didn't appear strong or confident. She looked like nothing more than a thin, frail girl who had just been ignored by her best friend for a boy who couldn't keep his hands off other women.

Uryu stepped forward, and it was then that Tatsuki noticed him. She started and wrapped her arms across her stomach, bowing her head.

"You heard all that?"  
"Yes."

He came closer and moved to touch her. For all his book smarts and strategic intelligence, he had no idea what to say to this hurt, angry girl in front of him.

"Stop," Tatsuki snapped. She kept her head down, spiky bangs obscuring her face from view, her shoulders shaking beneath her uniform. He ignored her plea. She smacked aside his outstretched hand. "Leave it, Ishida. Just…"

Something sharp and hot opened up in Uryu's chest. His hands shook with anger. That Kurosaki!

"Don't take it personally, Arisawa-san. Inoue-san will come to her senses."

The girl ignored his attempt to comfort her and set off angrily down the street. He started after her, but she whirled, teeth clenched and eyes burning.

"Don't follow me, Ishida. I don't want to be around anyone right now."

And because he had only ever respected her wishes, he let her go.

* * *

It took him exactly thirty minutes to realize he didn't want to let her go.

By then the rain was thundering down in great heavy sheets of moisture. Uryu's arm ached from holding his umbrella up against the weight of the pounding rain, but he trudged his way through the mud and over the concrete until his shoes hit soaked grass.

He wasn't sure how he knew Tatsuki would be at the park. It was just a gut feeling, the same gut feeling that had kept him alive in battle. Where else would she go? Where else would she go in her anger?

Uryu had been right. She was standing at the top of the hill, staring bleakly out onto the empty park. He slogged up the hill, grimacing as his shoes and socks filled with rain and mud.

"Arisawa-san!"

Tatsuki turned at the sound of his voice. A look of surprise passed over her face before her expression dissolved back into abject misery.

Gingerly, in some stupid, thin fear that she would flee from him if he moved too fast, he reached out his hand. The rain pelted his arm and gathered in his cupped fingers like sky-tears, like prayers, alms for the poor and desperate.

"Come here, Arisawa-san."

She stared at him in silence and let the quiet speak for her. If he hadn't known that she would never show such vulnerability in front of him, he would have thought the raindrops running down her cheeks were tears.

He frowned and moved forward a step. Tatsuki stayed absolutely still, her shoulders slumping listlessly under the weight of the rain and life's futility. Finally, she opened her mouth and spoke.

"Why did you follow me?"

It was hard to hear her over the pouring rain and the growl of thunder off in the distance, but Uryu had come close enough that his outstretched hand was nearly touching her. His arm began to burn with the effort of staying still. He ignored the pain; he'd been through much, much worse before.

"Why do you think?" he yelled over the cacophony.

Tatsuki frowned and wrapped her arms around her middle. Her school uniform was soaked completely through, her rebellious hair drenched and hanging around her face in submissive locks. Vaguely, he wondered how long she had been standing there, tilting her face into the driving rain, waiting for the two people who would not be showing up that day. They didn't know how protectively she had watched over them both, guarding their hearts and feelings from a distance. They didn't know how much he resented them for doing this to her.

"Come on," he called. "You'll get sick standing out here. Arisawa-san."

She ignored him and stared at the ground. Uryu took in a deep breath, steeled himself, and called once more.

"Tatsuki."

Her head snapped up and she met his gaze with fiery eyes that seemed to scorch the rain and his heart alike. "I'm not Orihime, Ishida," she told him.

His gaze never wavered. "I know."

Tatsuki faltered and shifted uncertainly on her feet. Her mouth opened and closed twice before she gave up and hunched in on herself. Taking that last step forward, Uryu closed the distance between them and touched her shoulder. Gently. Kindly. And if he was truly honest with himself, lovingly.

"Come on," he said quietly. "Let's go home."

Tatsuki lifted her head and nodded silently. She moved under the umbrella, and before he could take the initiative, buried her face in his chest. He wrapped an arm around her cold, shivering form and held her as she stared deep into his chest, into his heart, and saw her place there, waiting for her, as it always had been.

* * *

The next day, Uryu and Tatsuki went again to the park: holding hands, and with only their own hearts in mind.

* * *

End.

Please review! Each one will be more treasured and loved than a first-born child.

-Kimsa


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